Written by Tom Peyer
Illustrated by Jamal Igle
and Juan Castro
Extras Tom Feister, Frank Cammuso,
Gary Erskine, Paul Constant
Published by Ahoy Comics
I wasn’t sure what to think when I cracked open this book. I hadn’t heard of Ahoy Comics much. I knew that Tom Peyer was involved and that he is a strong writer. So I picked this up without any preconceived notions. And I found myself enjoying every moment of reading this.
This is an obvious take on the Batman mythos, but it does something interesting and runs with it.
So there are two earths in this book. Both feature the same superhero named Dragonfly.
On one earth, you have the campy Dragonfly with his sidekick named Stinger. This is an obvious take on the old Adam West/Burt Ward era of Batman.
It shows the campy side of comics and it’s more than a little cartoonish.
On the other Earth, we see sort of a “Frank Miller Batman” version of Dragonfly. Stinger was killed in action.
Dragonfly on this Earth lives in a dark place, and he’s more than a little violent in his methods. So, we get to see the two earths as the story starts out. We get to see the two of the heroes in their natural elements. And just when you are adjust to things, that’s when Peyer pulls the rug out from under you.
The heroes, through a series of events, switch places. The campy Dragonfly goes over to the darker word. And the darker Dragonfly goes over to the campy world. And it’s handled in a glorious and unexpected way.
Peyer does a great job of writing the two worlds without cynicism. Instead , he writes with love and respect for the eras he is writing about. He also gives it all a certain reverence which is wonderful to see. More writers should follow his example. The art by Igle is great. too, and it’s all handled with a certain amount of quality.
What I love most about this comic is that I actually felt like I got my money’s worth with each chapter.
In a world of compressed comic book storytelling, that’s valuable. I commend these creators for the inventiveness of this book and for keeping the quality high. It’s the stuff of classic comic book storytelling. And that’s a great thing.
RATING: A
